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<\/p>\nEditor\u2019s Note: Marlow is in this morning with some thoughts about the nature of identity, and the use of it in past and current times. The Writer\u2019s Section at Socotra House murmured about it at the editorial meeting this morning, some from behind masks of dubious health use but solid social value. Consider Marlow\u2019s views on this, since his experience as an ex-Pat student in France and behind The Wall long ago may provide some context for current life in these United States.<\/p>\n
– Vic<\/p>\n
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Today\u2019s title is a French phrase (your identity papers, please, sir) I heard quite often from French internal security officers and local gendarmes during the 1968-69 period I spent at a French university. In my opinion they wanted to see my carte de sejour was since I hung out in public cafes drinking cheap white wine and BSing with assorted commie, Maoist, Trotskyite, anarchist university students about politics, peace, war, history, the America-led free world, France, and the USSR-led commie world.<\/p>\n
Much later I heard Russian gendarmes squawk \u0411\u0443\u043c\u0430\u0433\u0430 (\u201cbumaga\u201d), when they wanted your \u201cpapers.\u201d This phrase was almost always barked, and for a while it made me jump a bit. No French pretty-please made it all the more startling. More than once, I was made to wait or suffer through some stupid dangle questions.<\/p>\n
This is what we are nonstop witnessing in and around Karzai International in Kabul. While I remain unsure which phrase the Taliban prefer using, I believe we Americans have become Russians.<\/p>\n
While \u201cbumaga\u201d is now a bit archaic die to its widespread use during the communist era, nowadays, you are more likely to hear \u201cpass\u201d or \u201cviza.\u201d It\u2019s like the word \u201corgans\u201d as in \u201cthe organs of state security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in the day, it always made me silently laugh when someone would say, \u201cThe organs are watching.\u201d Nowadays given what the internetted snoops are doing regarding the policing of our thoughts, words, and written expressions, \u201corgans\u201d make me jump like the older French citizens did way back then when they heard something loudly shouted in abrupt sounding German. I witnessed these reactions many times.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s questioned over there might as well jump (jump) so Van Halen\u2019s peppy upbeat rock song from 1983 goes (psst — it\u2019s about suicide) . . . “can’t you see me here I got my back against the wreckin\u2019 machine . . . \u201c<\/p>\n
They are so screwed.<\/p>\n
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Editor\u2019s Note: Marlow is in this morning with some thoughts about the nature of identity, and the use of it in past and current times. The Writer\u2019s Section at Socotra House murmured about it at the editorial meeting this morning, some from behind masks of dubious health use but solid social value. Consider Marlow\u2019s views […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-island-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21955,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21952\/revisions\/21955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}